Bottle closing and like machine



March 20, 1934. JQRGENSEN 1,951,936

BOTTLE CLOSING AND LIKE MACHINE Filed Nov. 23, 1931; 2 Sheets-Sheet l a I I I 8 A9 A9 54 32 4 46 28 S /7 25 H 4/ 5 4 w I 837 7 34 2 .3 llll 33 2 9 24 6 wwww arch 1934a A. M. JERGENSEN BOTTLE CLOSING AND LIKE MACHINE Filed Nov. 23, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 3%25222 WWW W Patented Mar. 20, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application November 23, 1931, Serial No. 576,863 In Germany December 29, 1930 2 Claims.

The invention relates to machines for closing bottles and like containers in succession by discs, capsules or closures of paper or of thin sheet aluminum or other easily bent material. In machines of this kind as hitherto constructed each disc or other closure was taken from the punch making it to the actual closing mechanism over the bottle or the like to be closed. The disadvantage of this procedure is that particles of the material of which the closure is made, or other impurities, could be introduced into the liquid in the bottle or other container to be closed. This risk is especially great in the case of a feed by air pressure. According to the invention this defect is overcome by feeding the closures to the closing device before the corresponding bottle or the like is brought thereunder. The feed of closures may thus take place above bottles which are already closed or at a part of the machine from which the closed bottles have already been discharged. Preferably an arrangement is fitted which stops the feed of a fresh closure into the closing device each time a bottle is missing from its place below a closing device. Otherwise the machine would endeavour to apply two or more closures simultaneously to a subsequent bottle brought into operative position in relation to this closing device. The accompanying drawings show an embodiment of the invention. In the drawings Figure 1 is an elevation and Figure 2 a plan of a bottle closing machine. Figure 3 is an elevation and Figure 4 a plan of an uncoupling device for the punch, the device being in the inoperative position, and Figures 5 and 6 are corresponding views in the operative position. In Figures 1 and 2, 1 is a conveyor band carrying the filled bottles. The bottles are moved therefrom by a transfer member 2 each on to one of the tables 3 in the form of plungers. Each plunger is guided to move vertically by two parallel horizontal discs 4 having holes which engage the plungers. The discs 4 are fast with a vertical shaft 5 driven by the shaft 6 through worm gear '7. The shaft 5 also carries two discs 8 to which are fitted the devices 9 performing the closing operation. These closing devices 9 are each mounted vertically above one of the tables 3 so as to engage the bottle 10 on the table. The plungers run on an inclined guide 11 which brings the bottles up to the closing position and allows them to recede therefrom. The closures are applied in succession in the usual way, pressure being applied by means of the counter pressure roller 12 acting on the closing devices 9 as they pass thereunder. The guide 11 is of adjustable height to suit different heights of bottle. After the 010- sure has been applied the bottles are taken by a second transfer member 13 and returned to the conveyor 1 which passes them on to the next operation. The bottles could just as well be fed to the closing machine direct from the filling machine without the intervention of a conveyor.

In the construction disclosed the closures are punched out by a punching machine, the upper part 14 of which is attached to the frame of the machine, while the lower cooperating part 15 is actuated from the shaft 6 by gears 16 and 16' and cam 17, which impart a vertical movement to the shaft 18. The punching tool also serves to imprint or otherwise mark the closures. On the lower disc 8 transfer levers 19 are journalled which are fast with levers 21 engaging a guide rail 20 by rollers. The rail 20 has such a form that the transfer levers 19 are successively moved between the two parts 14 and 15 of the punching tool and take the closure just produced, passing it to the corresponding closing device 9. This introduction into the closing machine of the closures takes place at a part of the machine between the pressure roller 12 and transfer member 13 where the bottles are already closed, so that any impurities cannot be introduced into the bottles here. The closures thus fed in remain in operative position in relation to the closing devices 9 while the filled bottles are fed in under them by the transfer member 2. As the bottles come to the closing position the closures are applied as stated, above by the action of the roller 12. The material used for making the closures, e. g. aluminium, can be fed in by any suitable arrangement. The material may be in the form of a strip 22. If a bottle is missing in the feed the closure in the corresponding closing device remains therein, so that no closure ought in this case to be produced and taken by the corresponding collecting lever 19. In Figures 3 to 6 a coupling arrangement is shown which ensures that a closure is only made for a particular closing device when a bottle 10 is under this closing device. The punching tool may be of any suitable kind and need not therefore be described here except in relation tothe drive. It is provided with an uncoupling device 23 controlled through an arm 25 by a lever 24 in such a manner that the coupling is closed in one position of the lever 24 and open in the other. The lever 24 is fitted to a shaft 26 carrying another lever 27. The lever 27 is so located that a collar 28 at the lower part of the table plunger 3 passes under the lever 27 without affecting it, when there is a bottle on the table 3, as shown in Figures 3 Ky C1 and 4. This is effected by the pressure roller 12 pushing the bottle 10 downwards and with it the table 3 against a spring inside the plunger. The lever 27 remains pressed against a stop 29 by the action of a spring 36 and the coupling remains closed so that the punching machine produces a closure. If on the other hand there is no bottle on the table 3, the plunger spring is not compressed and the collar 28 remains in its upper position where it engages the lever 27, moving it into the position shown in Figure 6. Thus the punch misses a stroke and no closure is produced. The journal of the lever 2'7 can be moved up and down the shaft 26 and is located by a part 31 projecting sideways from the slider 32 serving to adjust the height of the guide 11. Thus when the guide 11 is set for a particular height of bottle, the lever 27 automatically takes up the right position in relation to the collar 28 to operate in the manner outlined above for that height of bottle. The uncoupling device has the further advantage that it is independent of the diameter of the bottles.

The rotating column system (shaft 5 with discs 4 guiding the bottle tables 3 moved vertically by the stationary guide 11, and discs 8, the upper one of which carries the closing heads 9, the said discs 8 forming together the guiding means of the rotating transfer levers 19, 21) is driven by the shaft 6.

The outer end of the shaft 6 carries a pulley 35 and inside the same a gear wheel 36. In Fig. 2 the gear wheel 36 is partly hid by the gear wheel 16 placed sidewards above it. In Figs. 1, 4 and 6 the gear wheels 16 and 36 are shown, for clearness sake, fully free from each other.

The shaft 6 is mounted in two bearings 33, 34, only the bearing 33 shown in Figs. 4 and 6.

The shaft 6 drives by the worm 37 the worm wheel '7, Figs. 1 and 2, and rotates thereby the whole rotating column system of the machine.

The guide 11 of the bottle tables 3 is (as shown in Fig. 1) integral with a bushing 32 also represented in Figs. 3 and 5. The bushing 32 is able to slide up and down on a standard 38 having a number of holes 39 one above the others. A cross pin 40 can be inserted in the holes 39 to keep the bushing 32 and therewith also the guide 11 elevated to a position corresponding to the height of the bottles to be treated in the machine.

The. capsule punching tool 14, 15 is moved from the shaft 6 through gear wheels 36, 16. The gear wheel 16 is mounted on a shaft 41 kept and guided in along bearing 42 which is fixed to the standard 43 that carries at its top the punching tool l4, 15. On the inner end of the shaft 41 is clamped a bushing 23 inside which the shaft 41 carries a bushing 44 freely rotatable around the shaft and one end of which is shaped as a conical gear wheel 45 as appears from Figs. 1, 4 and 6. The other end of the bushing 44 has outwardly an inclined recess 46 (Figs. 4 and 6) ending in a contact face for an angular pawl 47. This pawl has a downwardly projecting lengthening bar 48 surrounded by a pressure spring. The pawl and lengthening bar are guided in an upper and lower flange on the bushing 23. During the normal running of the machine the pawl 4"? is pressed out of the bushing 23 by the spring, and the bushing 44, Fig. 4, will be rotated together with the shaft 41, and the conical ear wheel 45 (see Fig. 1) will rotate the other conical gear wheel 16', so that the shaft 49 lying horizontally into the plan of the paper in Fig. 1 will be rotated. Rigidly mounted on the shaft 49 is a cam 17, Figs. 1, 4

and 6, which will so affect the bar 18 that the punching tool 14, 15 works as long as the column system of the machine rotates in the normal way with bottles on all bottle tables.

In order to enable the machine to disconnect the punching tool 14, 15 each time when there is no bottle on one of the bottle tables 3 of the column system a vertical shaft 26 is mounted beside the standard 38, as shown in Figs. 1 and. 3-6. The shaft 26 is mounted at its lower end in a bearing 50 securing its vertical position but allowing at the same time its rotation. In the shaft 26 is cut a recess 51, and a bushing 52 seizes the shaft 26 and is displaceable on its top portion. In the interior of the bushing 52 is a tap entering the recess 51 of the shaft 26, so that the bushing 52 catches the shaft 26 and turns it therewith.

At its top the bushing 52 has a lever 2'? which is affected by a collar 28 on the bottle tables 3 if there is no bottle on the table in question. In this case the table 3 will be raised, as shown in Fig. 5 compared with Fig. 3.

To insure that the lever 27 of the bushing 52 has always the same height in relation to the guide 11 carried by the bushing 32, the bushing 52 is raised and lowered simultaneously with the bushing 32, which has to this end a projecting fork 31 or the like entering between two collars at the bottom of the bushing 52.

Rigidly mounted on the lower part of the shaft 26 is a hub 53 with a sidewardly projecting lever 24. The outer end of the lever 24 has a hole through which the outer downwardly bent end of the arm 25 passes, so that the arm 25 is reciprocated when the shaft 26 is turned owing to the lever 27 being influenced when a bottle is missing in the rotating column system of the machine.

In the side of the standard 43 visible in Fig. 1 is a stationary fork now shown in Fig. 1 and designated by 54 in Figs. 3-6. In this fork is mounted a turn member 55 visible only as a large T-shaped body in Figs. 4 and 6. The lower end of the member 55 is connected with the lever 24 on the vertical shaft 26 by means of the arm 25.

The member 55 is intended to coact with the angular pawl 47, Figs. 4 and 6, and to this end the lower side of the member 55, as shown in Figs. 3 to 6 has an inclined surface 56, which, when it is introduced in the path of the pawl thereby that the member 55 is moved from its position in Fig. 3 to its position in Fig. 5, causes the pawl 47 to be lowered in Figs. 4 and 6. Such a lowering of the pawl disengages the bushing 44 on the shaft 41 from the bushing 23 rotating with the shaft,

41. When the bushing 44 is released, this will again result in the punching tool 14, 15 being made inactive.

If there is no bottle on a bottle table in the rotating column system, the table 3 in question will rise to the position shown in Fig. 5, and the collar 28 will affect the lever 27 and turn thus the shaft 26 and lever 24. The turned lever 24 (which is moved from the position shown in Figs. 3 and 4 into the position shown in Figs. 5 and 6 because the lever 2'? comes into contact with the collar 28 of the bottle table) draws the arm 25 along to the right in all of the figures and this motion to the right of the arm 25 causes the member 55 to move from the position shown in Figs. 3 and 4 to that shown in Figs. 5 and 6. When the curved part of the member 55 comes into contact with the side of the bushing 23 rotating with the shaft 41, the inclined face 56, Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6, of the member 55 move the outwardly directed projection of the pawl 4'7 out of the bushing 44 or, in other words, downwards in Fig. 6, so that the end of the pawl otherwise drawing the bushing 44 along is drawn free from this bushing. When the pawl has reached the position shown in Fig. 6, the rotation of the gear wheels 45, 16' is stopped one period, which means again that the punching tool 14, 15 is stopped one period each time when a bottle is missing in the machine.

As soon as the pawl 47 is fully withdrawn by the inclined face 56 in the side of the member 55 (see Figs. 3 and 5) during the rotation of the shaft 41 and bushing 23, so that the lateral projection of the pawl slides on the front side (in Figs. 3 and 5) of the member 55, the disconnection of the members driving the punching tool will enter and endure as long as the lateral projection slides on the plane lateral surface a, Fig. 3, of the member 55. In fact, the disconnection will endure still longer, as the pawl 47 will not again reach the position shown in Fig. 4 until when the shaft 41 has made practically a whole rotation after the disconnection took place.

When a disconnection has taken place because of a missing bottle in the rotating column system, a renewed coupling will take place after one revolution of the shaft 41, as the spring 30, Figs. 4 and 6, will, as soon as the pawl 4'7 gets free from the member 55 (see Figs. 3 and 5), swing the lever 24 into the position shown in Figs. 3 and 4, where the member 55 is outside the path described by the pawl 47 when it rotates with the bushing 23. The spring surrounding the guiding pin 48 on pawl 4'7 pushes automatically the pawl up- Wards in the inclined recess 46 to the position shown in Fig. 4.

It is to be noted that the whole machine acts in such a way that the application of capsules to the bottles is a full rotation (of the rotating bottle column system) behind the production of capsules in the punching tool 14, 15. In other words at the start of the machine either previously made capsules must be placed in all of the closing heads 9, or the machine will not, when started and fed with bottles, close the first eight bottles passing through the rotating column system.

The invention is not limited to the example shown in the drawings, but may be put into practice in many other constructional forms without going beyond the scope of the invention.

I claim:-

1. A machine for closing bottles or the like containers by capsules and the like, comprising a column system composed of individual bottle tables having collars and closing devices rotating about a vertical axis, the closing devices being placed above the individual bottle tables in the column system, a single device for making capsules in the form of a capsule punching tool arranged outside the rotating column system of the machine, a number of rotatable transfer levers corresponding to the number of bottle tables and closing devices in the rotating column system, means in the form of co-operating levers and a guide rail by which the said transfer levers are so moved individually during the rotation of the column system as to be swung out of the column system before reaching the capsule punching tool, whereupon the transfer levers pass the said tool in swung-out position and carry along from the said tool the capsule finished therein, whereupon the transfer levers carry out a slow return motion into the rotating column system and push simultaneously the capsule fetched from the capsule making tool into its place in the closing device corresponding to the transfer lever in question in the rotating column system of the machine.

2. A machine in accordance with claim 1, wherein the capsule tool includes an uncoupling device and there is provided a guiding rail for the bottle tables, a bushing rigidly connected thereto, a carrying standard on which the height of the bushing may be adjusted, a rotatable shaft parallel to the standard, another bushing slidable on said shaft, an outwardly projecting part on said first bushing for automatically adjusting the height of the second bushing on said shaft, a lever on the last-mentioned bushing and affected, if a bottle fails on a bottle table in the rotating column system, that is, by a collar on the bottle table carrying no bottle and passing, therefore, said latter lever on such a level that the said collar of the bottle table is level with the lever, the said lever when affected causing the shaft to rotate, the said shaft being provided with a rigid lever influencing, when the shaft is turned, the uncoupling device of the capsule tool, so as to put the latter out of action for one period each time when a bottle is missing on one of the bottle tables of the machine.

AXEL MARIUS JQRGENSEN. 

